Local structure study of In_xGa_(1-x)As semiconductor alloys using High Energy Synchrotron X-ray Diffraction

Nearest and higher neighbor distances as well as bond length distributions (static and thermal) of the In_xGa_(1-x)As (0<x<1) semiconductor alloys have been obtained from high real-space resolution atomic pair distribution functions (PDFs). Using this structural information, we modeled the local atomic displacements in In_xGa_(1-x)As alloys. From a supercell model based on the Kirkwood potential, we obtained 3-D As and (In,Ga) ensemble averaged probability distributions. This clearly shows that As atom displacements are highly directional and can be represented as a combination of and displacements. Examination of the Kirkwood model indicates that the standard deviation (sigma) of the static disorder on the (In,Ga) sublattice is around 60% of the value on the As sublattice and the (In,Ga) atomic displacements are much more isotropic than those on the As sublattice. The single crystal diffuse scattering calculated from the Kirkwood model shows that atomic displacements are most strongly correlated along directions.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figure

Relativistic Effects in the Optical Response of HgSe by Time-Dependent Density Functionals Theory

We treat the dominant relativistic effects in the optical response properties of mercury selenide using time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). The scalar relativistic effects have been included within the zeroth-order regular approximation (ZORA) in both the ground-state DFT calculations and in the time-dependent response calculations. Within this approximation the HgSe crystal is found to be a semimetal. In a previous study we have shown that TDDFT/ZORA can be applied successfully to narrow-gap semiconductors, such as indium antimonide, that become semimetallic within the local density approximation when scalar relativistic effects are included. Results are given for the band structure, the static dielectric constant ε∞, and the dielectric function ε(ω) of HgSe, and these results are compared with the similar ones for InSb. We find considerably improved results for the dielectric function of HgSe when relativistic effects are included.